BERNADETTE PETERS
Bernadette Peters (born Bernadette Lazzara; February 28, 1948) is an American actress, singer and children’s book author. Over the course of a career that has spanned five decades, she has starred in musical theatre, films and television, as well as performing in solo concerts and recordings. She is one of the most critically acclaimed Broadway performers, having received nominations for seven Tony Awards, winning two (plus an honorary award), and nine Drama Desk Awards, winning three. Regarded by many as the foremost interpreter of the works of Stephen Sondheim, Peters is particularly noted for her roles on the Broadway stage, including in the musicals Mack and Mabel, Sunday in the Park with George, Song and Dance, Into the Woods, The Goodbye Girl, Annie Get Your Gun, and Gypsy. She also has recorded six solo albums and several singles, as well as many cast albums, and performs regularly in her own solo concert act. (More from Wikipedia)
This month’s Under Appreciated Rock Band, Crystal Mansion – often called the Crystal Mansion – is unusual in that several veteran musicians are involved; normally, the UARB’s are bands that are just starting out. Bandmembers include two men who have individual Wikipedia articles (both of which mention Crystal Mansion), David White – who had been a founding member of the estimable 1950’s band Danny and the Juniors – and Sal Rota – a bandmember in the Soul Survivors beginning in 1979. This band is best known for their 1967 hit “Expressway to Your Heart”, the first hit song by the Philadelphia soul songwriting and production team of Leon Huff and Kenny Gamble. Both men sang background vocals on Bernadette Peters’ first solo album. There are actually three incarnations of Crystal Mansion, each of which released a self-titled album over a 10-year period.
David White and Sal Rota both performed background vocals on Bernadette Peters’ debut album, Bernadette Peters (1980); the front cover was one of the final “Vargas girls” paintings by Alberto Vargas. In 1992, MCA Records released a CD under the name Bernadette combining 8 tracks from this first album plus 5 from her second album Now Playing (1981) that has a different Vargas painting on the cover; the cover on Bernadette is the same Vargas painting from Bernadette Peters.
(August 2015)
